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TOP JOBS

By EVERETT TAYLOR

A penny saved is a penny earned Ben Franklin once observed in a catchy saying that no doubt had more significance in his time than it might appear to have today.

Even in the earlier lifetime of some of today’s residents, a penny was looked upon with considerably more respect. Franklin’s advice on saving pennies was often quoted in the depression years when you could get a handful of salted peanuts out of one-cent vending machines.

Chewing gum balls and candy also were dispensed for a penny by similar machines, and the “five and dime” stores had a variety of items in the one-cent bins.

But when people today drop a penny they often are inclined not to even bother bending over to pick it up. And it might stay on the ground or sidewalk quite a while before someone comes along who still believes in the Franklin adage — most likely a person who remembers some of those Depression times.

More people than not probably have a good stock of pennies stuck away somewhere because they seem to accumulate quite rapidly from just about every purchase. Seldom does the tab come out on an even figure and few people bother to carry enough pennies around with them to cover those odd cents, so they keep getting more of them.

In 2007, the United States Mint produced 7.4 billion pennies. That is a pretty good indication that most of them don’t stay in circulation very long. They wind up in somebody’s coin drawer or collection box where they might stay for years.

If all of the pennies that could be found around people’s homes were accumulated, the Mint probably could suspend production of new ones for several years.

Pennies once were made of copper, but today’s version is 97.5 percent zinc and only 2.5 percent copper. Still, as of last week, it cost 1.26 cents to make a penny, which by federal government standards is a losing proposition.

So the House has stepped in and passed legislation providing for steel pennies, which could be produced cheaper. It also probably would make them perceived as even less desirable by the people.

Since the penny now is held in such low regard and seems worthless in a pocket full of change today, some people wonder if it just should be abandoned.

Even though the penny itself might seem worthless, a one-cent change in something, such as a tax, can be significant. And it would be a drastic change if every cost increase had to be by 5-cent increments.

A timely example might be a one-cent hike in the price of a first class postage stamp.

It so happens that Monday is the day the price of a stamp goes from 41 cents to 42 cents. This is the second hike in postage rates in two years. Some of those old timers still likely to pick up a penny probably remember when it only took one or two to buy a postage stamp, and maybe even get an envelope with it.

Even at a penny a step, postage stamps or anything else can steadily become a lot more costly. Monday’s rate hike is the fifth price increase since 2001. Stamp prices have gone up nearly 24 percent during that time.

For those inclined to think it might be fine to just go ahead and do away with the penny in today’s money exchange, consider the increasing cost of postage stamps. Without the penny, an increase would have to be to a number divisible by five, 45 cents in this case.

Apply that to other things such as sales taxes and prices of just about everything else and it would not just be high gasoline prices people were worried about.

Although the penny today doesn’t get much respect, saving it in the monetary system still is something Ben Franklin likely would advise.